Accused Baldwin stalker goes on trial

NEW YORK — A Canadian bit-part actress is on trial in New York on charges of stalking Alec Baldwin.

Genevieve Sabourin is accused of barraging Baldwin with lovesick, demanding messages and showing up outside his New York apartment building.

Her trial opened Thursday in Manhattan.

Sabourin met Baldwin on the set of 2002’s “The Adventures of Pluto Nash.”

Defense lawyer Todd Spodek says Sabourin and the “30 Rock” actor had a decade-long friendship and a sexual encounter in 2010. Spodek says Sabourin just tried to get answers — not harass Baldwin — after he lost interest.

Baldwin told a detective his contact with Sabourin was strictly professional. Baldwin’s publicist has declined to comment on the case.

Sabourin was arrested in April 2012.

o o o

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Rev. Billy Graham celebrated his 95th birthday Thursday with well-wishers who serenaded him and praised him for his spiritual leadership.

A crowd of roughly 900 people attended the two-hour party for the North Carolina-born evangelist at an Asheville hotel. Graham’s son acknowledged beforehand that it wouldn’t be a long party.

“We’re going to have a short evening,” the Rev. Franklin Graham said. “Daddy’s 95.”

The elder Graham was flanked by real estate mogul Donald Trump and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Franklin Graham said prior to the event that former President Bill Clinton, who had been listed as one of the guests, couldn’t attend.

“Billy Graham, we need you around another 95 years,” Palin said. “We need Billy Graham’s message to be heard, I think, today more than ever.”

The event began with the debut of a new video of Billy Graham from his home as part of a nationwide religious outreach called “My Hope.”

The video features clips of Graham filmed this year at his home in nearby Montreat. Also included are audio excerpts of his early days, when he took his crusades around the nation and the world.

o o o

LOS ANGELES — Kanye West has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor battery and attempted grand theft in a case filed over a scuffle with a celebrity photographer earlier this year.

Attorney Blair Berk entered the plea on the rapper’s behalf Thursday in a Los Angeles court. West was charged with two misdemeanors in September over a July altercation with paparazzo Daniel Ramos at Los Angeles International Airport.

Prosecutors declined to file felony charges against West, but decided to pursue the misdemeanors. Each carries a penalty of up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Ramos claims West punched him in an unprovoked attack and wrestled his camera to the ground on July 19.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to an inspector general’s report released Thursday.

The IRS sent a total of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in